CPAC 2013, pros and cons

CPAC 2013, pros and cons

For the last three years, ever since Robert Stacy McCain insisted I MUST go to CPAC after we cov­ered the 1st Scott Brown race I have been going to CPAC as a cre­den­tialed blog­ger with Fedo­ras and Can­noli in hand to inter­view movers, shakes and the peo­ple who help back them. As CPAC2013 gets closer I’ve applied for my cre­den­tials and have been con­firmed for them. (Although I’ve yet to order the Cannoli)

There are an awful lot of great rea­sons to attend CPAC:

Access:The num­ber of high level con­ser­v­a­tives can’t be under­es­ti­mated, as a cre­den­tialed blog­ger you have a con­sid­er­able amount of access to said peo­ple all in a sin­gle place.

Net­work­ing:With a large amount of our fel­low blog­gers in atten­dance, it is pos­si­ble to net­work with peo­ple you have only com­mu­ni­cated with over the net.

News: Occa­sion­ally news breaks out at CPAC as it did last year with the con­fronta­tions with the Occupods and Andrew Breitbart’s will­ing­ness to con­front them (it’s so odd to think of CPAC with­out him)

First Hand Reports:First hand reports are always bet­ter than 2nd hand reports as any­one can tell you. It’s also amaz­ing what you notice that some­one might not, or what some­one else might notice and men­tion to you.

Read­ers:One of the best things about CPAC is meet­ing YOU, the reader who has made this blog what it is and the tip jar hit­ters who make things pos­si­ble. The Fedora Exchange:This one is per­sonal, I have fedo­ras loaned out to activists, when I see them I regain them and load them out to other activists.

This doesn’t even count the plea­sures of see­ing the friends I have made in blogging.

I tend to be very active at CPAC, I have been kindly called one of the “hard­est work­ing blog­gers at CPAC.” It’s true that I tend to spend a lot of time on sto­ries and less time in par­ties but there are sev­eral good rea­sons for this.

This is my job:I am try­ing to make a liv­ing as a free­lance blog­ger and radio host, if I hope to do so then I have to pro­duce con­tent for my read­er­ship that is a suf­fi­cient incen­tive for them to kick in the $300 weekly for me to draw a pay.

DaW­ife:My wife has worked very hard to keep things above water while I try this career. It has not been easy on her. That being the case it is incum­bent for me to put the max­i­mum effort in at CPAC. If the fam­ily can’t afford a vaca­tion I’m cer­tainly not going to turn CPAC into one. Given the expense CPAC entails it would be obscene for me to basi­cally spend three days par­ty­ing with friends while she has to work.

Vol­ume:I shoot a ridicu­lous amount of video in inter­views at CPAC, the sheer vol­ume of data requires me to be con­stantly writ­ing and upload­ing to keep up with it.

Oblig­a­tion:I’ve always told my adver­tis­ers and tip jar hit­ter that when I take their money it means I work for them. Let it never be said that I didn’t ful­fill my oblig­a­tions to the reader. Rules of Sicil­ian liv­ing:I like a party as much as the next man but I have a vivid mem­ory of a CPAC where a female reporter imbibed to excess and made a com­plete fool of her­self in front of my face for sev­eral hours. Deco­rum and the rules of gen­tle­manly behav­ior for­bade my writ­ing on the sub­ject or nam­ing the per­son in ques­tion but it would appear to me alco­hol in quan­tity mixed with peo­ple who write for a liv­ing car­ry­ing a near infi­nite amount of record­ing devices is a com­bi­na­tion to be avoided.

I’m cheap:CPAC is an expense for me. So the more mate­r­ial I pro­duce the bet­ter value it is for the money.

So for me CPAC is a job, an enjoy­able part of a job but a job that car­ries expense nevertheless.

This year how­ever CPAC has made sev­eral changes that have proven to be a dis­tinct dis­in­cen­tive to attending:

Mov­ing:As Glenn Reynolds pre­dicted last year a larger venue was cer­tainly needed but the new hotel is not only very expen­sive but it not acces­si­ble by the Metro mean­ing cab travel and addi­tional expense.. Cre­den­tial­ing:CPAC has decided to issue a sin­gle media cre­den­tial for blog­gers and the MSM. While I’m sure this annoys the lib­eral media and was meant to ele­vate blog­gers this has a dis­tinct dis­ad­van­tage in the sense that the CPAC attendee could gen­er­ally tell friend (CPAC blog­ger gen­er­ally con­ser­v­a­tive) from foe (MSM jour­nal­ist gen­er­ally out to get you) and would act accord­ingly. If we are all the media then CPAC atten­dees will sen­si­bly treat us all as “enemy”.

Sin­gle media area: Again while it must annoy the MSM to no end to be on equal foot­ing with “just blog­gers”, this actu­ally works against blog­gers in sev­eral ways. Speak­ers went to the blog­ger lounge to speak to give access to peo­ple who would give them a fair shake. We were a sought after com­mod­ity It will be very easy for blog­gers to be crowded out in the scrum and our own area made us spe­cial. The ejec­tion of Mau­reen Dowd from the CPAC blog­gers lounge remains to me one of the great­est moments in CPAC his­tory. No free Wi-​fi:Seri­ously? There is no wifi being pro­vided for blog­gers (I sus­pect this is related to #2&3) and it’s my under­stand­ing that pur­chased access is $250. For peo­ple who can afford expen­sive phones and data plans or who do this on a lark that’s a drop in the bucket. For the MSM it’s part of an expense account. For the blog­ger like me who uses a trac phone, buy his time in units of a cou­ple of hun­dred min­utes it’s a dif­fer­ent story. Con­sid­er­ing the num­ber of peo­ple already report­ing from CPAC the case for read­ers kick­ing in $1000 to get me there and back (Nearby Hotel + Air $821 Bag­gage fees $50, Cabs $40 and if I’m care­ful Meals $75) while still look­ing for that $300 weekly pay­check is iffy enough. To ask them to pay an addi­tional $250 sim­ply so I can do my job while I’m there, that’s just unrea­son­able. It also means I’ll have to go to my hotel to do my posting.

CPAC has always been about ener­giz­ing con­ser­v­a­tive and to some degree the alter­nate con­ser­v­a­tive media. Given blog­gers always had bet­ter access than the MSM in the past and our shoe­string I would think the wise thing to do would be to enhance these advan­tages rather than can­cel them.

Any­ways I can’t see me skip­ping CPAC. There is just too much news to get there and of course it’s an excel­lent chance to pro­mote the radio show and hope­fully pick up some spon­sors and per­haps maybe even some new sta­tions along the way, but I’ve got to tell you, these changes seem a real dis­in­cen­tive to attendance.

Of course that just might the Sicil­ian in me com­ing out.

Update: For­got a HUGE pro, How could I neglect men­tion­ing Mass at the Shrine of the Basil­ica of the National Shrine of the Immac­u­late Con­cep­tion. A place so holy you can actu­ally feel the pres­ence of the Holy Spirit. (and the best break­fast in Wash­ing­ton in the cafe­te­ria) Unfor­tu­nately the new loca­tion is 12 miles away mak­ing cab fare nearly $40 one way so that’s out So I guess it’s St. Colum­bia Church at Oxen Hill, Under $15 for cab far with tip. Cer­tainly not as spec­tac­u­lar as the National Shine but the con­tain­ing no less the real pres­ence of Christ in the Mass and the Eucharist.

Inci­den­tally if you are a Catholic going to CPAC for the first time and can afford it GOTOTHEBASIL­ICAFORMASS. Any Catholic needs to expe­ri­ence it at least once. In fact it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get a group together to go to mass at the national Basil­ica (or at St Colum­bia) on Sunday.

Of course if there are 10 more of you who can hit DaTip­Jar for $100 then I can buy my CPAC tick­ets and hotel but for now I think I’ll worry about the pay­check and the mort­gage, first things first.

For the last three years, ever since Robert Stacy McCain insisted I MUST go to CPAC after we covered the 1st Scott Brown race I have been going to CPAC as a credentialed blogger with Fedoras and Cannoli in hand to interview movers, shakes and the people who help back them. As CPAC 2013 gets closer I’ve applied for my credentials and have been confirmed for them. (Although I’ve yet to order the Cannoli)

There are an awful lot of great reasons to attend CPAC:

Access:The number of high level conservatives can’t be underestimated, as a credentialed blogger you have a considerable amount of access to said people all in a single place.

Networking:With a large amount of our fellow bloggers in attendance, it is possible to network with people you have only communicated with over the net.

News: Occasionally news breaks out at CPAC as it did last year with the confrontations with the Occupods and Andrew Breitbart’s willingness to confront them (it’s so odd to think of CPAC without him)

First Hand Reports:First hand reports are always better than 2nd hand reports as anyone can tell you. It’s also amazing what you notice that someone might not, or what someone else might notice and mention to you.

Readers:One of the best things about CPAC is meeting YOU, the reader who has made this blog what it is and the tip jar hitters who make things possible.
The Fedora Exchange:This one is personal, I have fedoras loaned out to activists, when I see them I regain them and load them out to other activists.

This doesn’t even count the pleasures of seeing the friends I have made in blogging.

I tend to be very active at CPAC, I have been kindly called one of the “hardest working bloggers at CPAC.” It’s true that I tend to spend a lot of time on stories and less time in parties but there are several good reasons for this.

This is my job:I am trying to make a living as a freelance blogger and radio host, if I hope to do so then I have to produce content for my readership that is a sufficient incentive for them to kick in the $300 weekly for me to draw a pay.

DaWife:My wife has worked very hard to keep things above water while I try this career. It has not been easy on her. That being the case it is incumbent for me to put the maximum effort in at CPAC. If the family can’t afford a vacation I’m certainly not going to turn CPAC into one. Given the expense CPAC entails it would be obscene for me to basically spend three days partying with friends while she has to work.

Volume:I shoot a ridiculous amount of video in interviews at CPAC, the sheer volume of data requires me to be constantly writing and uploading to keep up with it.

Obligation:I’ve always told my advertisers and tip jar hitter that when I take their money it means I work for them. Let it never be said that I didn’t fulfill my obligations to the reader.
Rules of Sicilian living:I like a party as much as the next man but I have a vivid memory of a CPAC where a female reporter imbibed to excess and made a complete fool of herself in front of my face for several hours. Decorum and the rules of gentlemanly behavior forbade my writing on the subject or naming the person in question but it would appear to me alcohol in quantity mixed with people who write for a living carrying a near infinite amount of recording devices is a combination to be avoided.

I’m cheap: CPAC is an expense for me. So the more material I produce the better value it is for the money.

So for me CPAC is a job, an enjoyable part of a job but a job that carries expense nevertheless.

This year however CPAC has made several changes that have proven to be a distinct disincentive to attending:

Moving:As Glenn Reynolds predicted last year a larger venue was certainly needed but the new hotel is not only very expensive but it not accessible by the Metro meaning cab travel and additional expense..
Credentialing:CPAC has decided to issue a single media credential for bloggers and the MSM. While I’m sure this annoys the liberal media and was meant to elevate bloggers this has a distinct disadvantage in the sense that the CPAC attendee could generally tell friend (CPAC blogger generally conservative) from foe (MSM journalist generally out to get you) and would act accordingly. If we are all the media then CPAC attendees will sensibly treat us all as “enemy”.

Single media area: Again while it must annoy the MSM to no end to be on equal footing with “just bloggers”, this actually works against bloggers in several ways. Speakers went to the blogger lounge to speak to give access to people who would give them a fair shake. We were a sought after commodity It will be very easy for bloggers to be crowded out in the scrum and our own area made us special. The ejection of Maureen Dowd from the CPAC bloggers lounge remains to me one of the greatest moments in CPAC history.
No free Wi-fi:Seriously? There is no wifi being provided for bloggers (I suspect this is related to #2 & 3) and it’s my understanding that purchased access is $250. For people who can afford expensive phones and data plans or who do this on a lark that’s a drop in the bucket. For the MSM it’s part of an expense account. For the blogger like me who uses a trac phone, buy his time in units of a couple of hundred minutes it’s a different story. Considering the number of people already reporting from CPAC the case for readers kicking in $1000 to get me there and back (Nearby Hotel + Air $821 Baggage fees $50, Cabs $40 and if I’m careful Meals $75) while still looking for that $300 weekly paycheck is iffy enough. To ask them to pay an additional $250 simply so I can do my job while I’m there, that’s just unreasonable. It also means I’ll have to go to my hotel to do my posting.

CPAC has always been about energizing conservative and to some degree the alternate conservative media. Given bloggers always had better access than the MSM in the past and our shoestring I would think the wise thing to do would be to enhance these advantages rather than cancel them.

Anyways I can’t see me skipping CPAC. There is just too much news to get there and of course it’s an excellent chance to promote the radio show and hopefully pick up some sponsors and perhaps maybe even some new stations along the way, but I’ve got to tell you, these changes seem a real disincentive to attendance.

Of course that just might the Sicilian in me coming out.

Update: Forgot a HUGE pro, How could I neglect mentioning Mass at the Shrine of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. A place so holy you can actually feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. (and the best breakfast in Washington in the cafeteria) Unfortunately the new location is 12 miles away making cab fare nearly $40 one way so that’s out So I guess it’s St. Columbia Church at Oxen Hill, Under $15 for cab far with tip. Certainly not as spectacular as the National Shine but the containing no less the real presence of Christ in the Mass and the Eucharist.

Incidentally if you are a Catholic going to CPAC for the first time and can afford it GO TO THE BASILICA FOR MASS. Any Catholic needs to experience it at least once. In fact it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get a group together to go to mass at the national Basilica (or at St Columbia) on Sunday.

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